what to teach future digital reference librarians: experiences of ipl student volunteers
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http://www.ipl.orgThe Internet Public Library
What to TeachFuture Digital Reference Librarians:
Experiences of IPL Student Volunteers
Maurita Peterson Holland
Soo Young Rieh
School of Information, University of Michigan
http://www.ipl.orgThe Internet Public Library
The IPL is a venue for … Education
– Trained 1,500 information professionals from twelve U.S. and Canadian universities
Research– Janes, Carter, Mon, Chen, Edwards, Holland
and Rieh Service
– Linked to by over 12,000 sites and cited in more than 500 articles and books
http://www.ipl.orgThe Internet Public Library
http://www.ipl.orgThe Internet Public Library
http://www.ipl.orgThe Internet Public Library
http://www.ipl.orgThe Internet Public Library
http://www.ipl.orgThe Internet Public Library
http://www.ipl.orgThe Internet Public Library
http://www.ipl.orgThe Internet Public Library
Digital Reference Service (DRS) Previously in the literature
– Understanding the nature and role of intermediation in digital environments
– The process of building and maintaining DRS
– User studies– Usage log analysis
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What about the experiences, behaviors, and preferences of librarians (intermediaries)?
How can we better train future digital reference librarians?
Digital Reference Service (DRS)
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Ask a Question in IPL Same as other DRS
– Asynchronous (web-based form) transactions– Lack of reference interviews– Require additional skills and training to
reference service Different from other DRS
– Entirely rely on the Internet resources– Volunteer labor – Intermediaries choose the questions that
they would like to answer
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Research Questions What factors influence student volunteers’
decisions in selecting questions? What are their search strategies? How do they select specific information
resources? What are the strategies, search skills, and
knowledge of resources that the IPL librarians need?– We teach sources, tools, information needs
and professional practice
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Methodology Questionnaire including open-ended questions Participants: 111 students at the School of
Information, University of Michigan (41 students in Fall 2002 and 70 students in Fall 2003)
Every time the students answered a reference question, they filled out questionnaire
Participants answered 1581 reference questions in total during the two semesters
Analyze frequency for quantitative data and develop coding schemes for open-ended questions
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Questionnaire Why did you choose this question? Do you need additional information? Choosing and executing a strategy Strategy Implementation Result (copy of message sent to client) Time spent URL suggestions for IPL Ah-ha: Reflections, observations, lessons
learned, suggestions for IPL interface and software
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Why did you choose this question?
Topic (n=1283)
62% (792)
31% (396)
7% (95)
Curious Familiar Other
Ability (n=1197)
3% (41)19% (225)
78% (931)
Think I know how to do this oneWant to try something out of my scopeOther
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Do you need additional information?
(n=1425)
47% (675)
53% (750)
No Yes
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If “yes,” then what is needed?
(n=333)
20% (67)
9% (29)
10% (32)
13% (45)20% (66)
28% (94)
Professional knowledge ofsources on the topic
Client's context
Client's use
Client's previous work
Client's reading level
Other
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(n=1702)
2% (37)6% (95)
8% (144)
20% (346)
63% (1080)
Search terms are obvious
Familiar with topic
Hard to grasp; fishing
Subject match withindictionary or thesaurus
Other
Question-related strategy
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Source-related strategy
(n=998)
5% (49)
39% (388)
56% (561)
Content should fit
Certainty of URL
Other
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Search-related strategy
(n=2129)
1%(23)
7% (151)
9% (182)
10% (206)
16% (346)
32% (690)
25% (531)Likelihood of success
Ease of access/ directness
Range of sources
Subject match
Query flexibility
Speed
Other
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Ah-ha Reflections – Self Learns sources Makes emotional investment Derives personal satisfaction Draws on personal experience Learns to be professional Learns strategy Shows curiosity to learn more
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Ah-ha Reflections – Client Tries to match writing style and tone Tries to intuit need Contemplates level of detail Considers clients intelligence, ponders
their motives, ascribes attributes
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Ah-ha Reflections – Question/Answer Learns that what appears easy
sometimes isn’t Must accept that some questions can’t be
answered Sometimes learns to take a new point of
view about a question and marvels at the result
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Ah-ha Reflections – Question/Answer Considers ethics Finds print sources are necessary Thinks about orderly steps as the
writing process forces
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Ah-ha Reflections - Tools Evaluates, evaluates Suggests improvements for the IPL Is pleased with the IPL Faces technical problems Locates gaps in web resources Tests search engine features
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What We Teach Whose job is it? How far to go?
– One hour rule Give it up for Jen
– Confidence/uncertainty It’s not all here!
– Print is still important If only…
– Tools and sources needs
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What We Teach Present your credentials
– Evaluating sources Fractured resources
– Deep web, fee-based, confusions of access Everybody is a client
– Helping kids, global citizens
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What We Teach Familiarity breeds confidence
– More sources learned, more used Know answer, can’t find source If you can’t give’em bread, give’em
crust– You don’t understand the question, chew on
potential answers
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What Do We Teach? Policy and Ethics Resources Collection credentialing Strategies Team work; rely on experts …and acknowledge personal
involvement
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www.ipl.org
Join Us!!
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Bibliography Lankes, R.D, et al, eds. (2000) Digital
reference service in the new millennium: planning, management, and evaluation. New York: Neal-Schuman.
Smith, L.C. (2002) Education for digital reference services. Proceedings of the Digital Reference Research Symposium, Aug. 1-3, Cambridge, MA
White, M.D. (2001) Digital reference services: framework for analysis and evaluation. Library & Information Science Research, 23:3, 211-231
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